Let's meet Jeremy, Raging Rolls' pusher of buttons and widgets and taker of things. Hi Jeremy 👋
How long have you been playing D&D and how did you get into it / get started?
I remember being gifted an Advanced D&D box set for Christmas when I was about 12. It looked awesome, but was overwhelming for me at the time - so much reading! Granted, I also had no idea what a TTRPG was back then. It was also very hard to find others willing to invest the time to help me learn it. So, alas, that game went unplayed and eventually got donated (I think). Now, many, many years later I've rediscovered D&D. Part of me looks back on that 12-year-old wishing he'd stuck it out a little more.
Now, I've been playing D&D since December of 2019. I remember being on the train to work one morning and trawling through facebook, when a strange and out-of-the-blue thought popped into my head - "I wonder if there's any D&D stuff on facebook?" That quickly led me to a facebook group where one of the first posts I saw was people asking if there are others in my area that would like to start a D&D group. It was a sign! Anyway, I chimed in on that thread and about 2 minutes later a friend from work (hey Dave!) messaged me saying he knows the person that asked the question on facebook - it was Mark! Over the next few weeks Dave and I caught up often and shared what we knew of this hobby. A short time later we all met up at the local RSL (neutral ground) and had decided to try out D&D with a one-shot to see if we really enjoyed it. This was the first time most of us had met Robin, the DM of Doom, and each other, in real life.
It was awesome! Most of us being so very new to the game were coached through the session by DM of Doom who made it really accessible and loads of fun. I was hooked! The balance between mechanics, and role-play; the stories and uncapped creativity; and ultimately the escapism and friendship that this game afforded was exactly what I needed, and still do.
Tell us about your favourite PC you’ve played and what made it so great
The character I created for our first campaign, Waterdeep Dragon Heist, is still near and dear to me. In creating the character I wanted to challenge myself and also bring some diversity to the party so I decided to play a female elf ranger, Gwathren, or "Ren". I spent a long time (perhaps too long) developing and refining her backstory. This being my first real foray into D&D I had no idea that the entire campaign was based in a city and ranger probably wasn't the best choice. But it was in this ignorance that I found ways to dive deeper into her story and her mind and really get to know her.
What I really loved about playing her was how she developed this label as being a kleptomaniac - she would look to pocket anything and everything. I remember doing it at first just for some laughs, but I realised that it played really well into her backstory as someone who needed to steal to stay alive. It became part of her character and I loved playing into that.
If you DM, what’s your best tip for future DM’s out there? (Or equivalent for a player)
I've recently started to DM some one-shots using the Candlekeep Mysteries stories. I do absolutely want to DM a full campaign (Rime of the Frostmaiden is on my to-do list), but I want to warm up to it. I've been using the Candlekeep one-shots as a way to practice and incrementally get into longer arcs and learn how to create interesting and challenging encounters and exactly what kind of shenanigans players will try at different levels.
Check out the Candlekeep Mysteries session on YouTube here.
When I DM I try to encapsulate the setting and environment and how it affects the characters. I read somewhere to lean on the 5 senses to describe things, so I try to remember to set the scene not just with visuals, but audio, temperature and humidity, smells - both good and bad, etc. I feel that really giving players an understanding of how their characters feel in a moment can greatly influence how they're played, and that the character's actions are in line with the current situation.
For players, I'd recommend not being afraid step up into the spotlight. It's easy to step into the shadows and wait and wait as the DM leads the story and then an encounter begins. But, I think that making sure every character has a share of the spotlight is good way to tap in to more backstory, understand character dynamics better and leads to deeper, more interesting role-play moments. Take ownership of your character, let them shine and also use that to shine the light on others in the shadows.
What’s one epic moment you can recall from one of your games?
There have been plenty of these! I could describe the time our amateur party took down Xanathar, or how a simple downtime session really helped our party bond as a unit. But, instead, let's talk about hags in a bag...
In a recent Candlekeep session I was running there were three hags causing trouble for the party. The rogue decided to "net" a hag in a bag of holding by leaping off of someone's back, into the air, and bring the bag down over the hag's head all the way to the feet.
The dice sided with the rogue... not once... but twice! Two hags ended up in the bag of holding, before the third managed to hide. 10 minutes in a closed bag and the hags were toast.
I love this for it's absolute craziness, riskiness and the visual of a hag almost being sucked into the black hole of the bag of holding, almost like a genie in a lamp.
Watch the "Hags in a Bag" unfold on YouTube here.
Join Jeremy and the Raging Rolls for Call of the Seven Rings on Thursdays from 8:30pm Sydney time at twitch.tv/ragingrolls or catch up on YouTube. Find Jeremy on Discord as Hector Hargreaves.